Glossary of Terms

Dietary Supplement

means a product (other than tobacco) intended to supplement the diet that bears or contains one or more of the following dietary ingredients:

a vitamin;

a mineral;

an herb or other botanical;

an amino acid;

a dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake; or

a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any ingredient described in clause (A), (B), (C), (D), or (E);

means a product that –

“(A)(i) is intended for ingestion in a form described in section 411(c)(1)(B)(i); or “(ii) complies with section 411(c)(1)(B)(ii);

is not represented for use as a conventional food or as a sole item of a meal or the diet; and

is labeled as a dietary supplement; and

does –

(A) include an article that is approved as a new drug under section 505, certified as an antibiotic under section 507, or licensed as a biologic under section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 262) and was, prior to such approval, certification, or license, marketed as a dietary supplement or as a food unless the Secretary has issued a regulation, after notice and comment, finding that the article, when used as or in a dietary supplement under the conditions of use and dosages set forth in the labeling for such dietary supplement, is unlawful under section 402(f); and

not include –

an article that is approved as a new drug under section 505, certified as an antibiotic under section 507, or licensed as a biologic under section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 262), or

an article authorized for investigation as a new drug, antibiotic, or biological for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public, which was not before such approval, certification, licensing, or authorization marketed as a dietary supplement or as a food unless the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, has issued a regulation, after notice and comment, finding that the article would be lawful under this Act.

Actual yield means the quantity that is actually produced at any appropriate step of manufacture or packaging of a particular dietary supplement.

Batch means a specific quantity of a dietary supplement that is uniform, that is intended to meet specifications for identity, purity, strength, and composition, and that is produced during a specified time period according to a single manufacturing record during the same cycle of manufacture.

Batch number, lot number, or control number means any distinctive group of letters, numbers, or symbols, or any combination of them, from which the complete history of the manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and/or holding of a batch or lot of dietary supplements can be determined.

Component means any substance intended for use in the manufacture of a dietary supplement, including those that may not appear in the finished batch of the dietary supplement. Component includes dietary ingredients (as described in section 201(ff) of the act) and other ingredients.

Contact surface means any surface that contacts a component or dietary supplement, and those surfaces from which drainage onto the component or dietary supplement, or onto surfaces that contact the component or dietary supplement, occurs during the normal course of operations. Examples of contact surfaces include containers, utensils, tables, contact surfaces of equipment, and packaging.

Ingredient means any substance that is used in the manufacture of a dietary supplement and that is intended to be present in the finished batch of the dietary supplement. An ingredient includes, but is not necessarily limited to, a dietary ingredient as defined in section 201(ff) of the act.

In-process material means any material that is fabricated, compounded, blended, ground, extracted, sifted, sterilized, derived by chemical reaction, or processed in any other way for use in the manufacture of a dietary supplement.

Lot means a batch, or a specific identified portion of a batch, that is uniform and that is intended to meet specifications for identity, purity, strength, and composition; or, in the case of a dietary supplement produced by continuous process, a specific identified amount produced in a specified unit of time or quantity in a manner that is uniform and that is intended to meet specifications for identity, purity, strength, and composition.

Microorganisms means yeasts, molds, bacteria, viruses, and other similar microscopic organisms having public health or sanitary concern. This definition includes species that:

May have public health significance;

May cause a component or dietary supplement to decompose;

Indicate that the component or dietary supplement is contaminated with filth; or

Otherwise may cause the component or dietary supplement to be adulterated.

Must is used to state a requirement.

Pest means any objectionable insect or other animal including birds, rodents, flies, mites, and larvae.

Physical plant means all or any part of a building or facility used for or in connection with manufacturing, packaging, labeling, or holding a dietary supplement.

Product complaint means any communication that contains any allegation, written, electronic, or oral, expressing concern, for any reason, with the quality of a dietary supplement, that could be related to current good manufacturing practice. Examples of product complaints are: Foul odor, off taste, illness or injury, disintegration time, color variation, tablet size or size variation, under-filled container, foreign material in a dietary supplement container, improper packaging, mislabeling, or dietary supplements that are superpotent, subpotent, or contain the wrong ingredient, or contain a drug or other contaminant (e.g., bacteria, pesticide, mycotoxin, glass, lead).

Quality means that the dietary supplement consistently meets the established specifications for identity, purity, strength, and composition, and limits on contaminants, and has been manufactured, packaged, labeled, and held under conditions to prevent adulteration under section 402(a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3), and (a)(4) of the act.

Quality control means a planned and systematic operation or procedure for ensuring the quality of a dietary supplement.

Quality control personnel means any person, persons, or group, within or outside of your organization, who you designate to be responsible for your quality control operations.

Representative sample means a sample that consists of an adequate number of units that are drawn based on rational criteria, such as random sampling, and that are intended to ensure that the sample accurately portrays the material being sampled.

Reprocessing means using, in the manufacture of a dietary supplement, clean, uncontaminated components or dietary supplements that have been previously removed from manufacturing and that have been made suitable for use in the manufacture of a dietary supplement.

Reserve sample means a representative sample of product that is held for a designated period of time.

Sanitize means to adequately treat cleaned equipment, containers, utensils, or any other cleaned contact surface by a process that is effective in destroying vegetative cells of microorganisms of public health significance, and in substantially reducing numbers of other microorganisms, but without adversely affecting the product or its safety for the consumer.

Theoretical yield means the quantity that would be produced at any appropriate step of manufacture or packaging of a particular dietary supplement, based upon the quantity of components or packaging to be used, in the absence of any loss or error in actual production.

Water activity (aw) is a measure of the free moisture in a component or dietary supplement and is the quotient of the water vapor pressure of the substance divided by the vapor pressure of pure water at the same temperature.